Seminar
A Study of the Differences Between Experts and Novices in a Dental Drilling Task
Date: Thursday 9th October 2009
Commencing: 12.00 pm
Venue: Theatre 1, Alan Gilbert Building, Ground Floor, Room G21,161 Barry Street, Carlton
Presented by:Associate Professor Andrew Smith, Dr Ed Kazmiercza& Ms Ioanna Ioannou
Univeristy of Melbourne
In this talk we report on our recent experiment investigating the cognitive and psychomotor factors in the development of surgical expertise and how these factors impact on the design, implementation and use of VR simulators for surgical training. The central questions for our research program is: "What characterises expertise in dental surgery" and "What are the requirements for a virtual reality simulator to contribute effectively to training outcomes"?
The research question has a wider relevance than just dental training. We are seeking the subtle perceptual cues and responses that experts use to access their patterns in long-term memory and to develop effective strategies for developing the same perceptual responses during simulator-based surgical training.
The experiment consisted of a group of novice dental surgeons and a group of expert dental surgeons being given the simple drilling task of drilling sheep jaw bones while not damaging the teeth. Both groups were shown the same video explaining the task and pre-task and post-task interviews were conducted to investigate cognitive factors in the task. The sheep jaw was placed on a force-sensor allowing 3-d force measurements, sound recordings were made and the task and surgeon videoed during the procedure. We report on the findings and briefly explore the consequences for dental virtual reality simulators and for the use of such simulators in the dental curriculum.
*Venue:
The University of Melbourne,
Theatre 1, Alan Gilbert Building
161 Barry Street, Carlton
(Building 104, University Map)